Juan Vicente Gomez

Juan Vicente Gomez (24 July 1857-17 December 1935) was President of Venezuela from 19 December 1908 to 13 August 1913 (succeeding Cipriano Castro and preceding Jose Gil Fortoul), from 24 June 1922 to 30 May 1929 (succeeding Victorino Marquez Bustillos and preceding Juan Bautista Perez), and from 13 June 1931 to 17 December 1935 (succeeding Perez and preceding Eleazar Lopez Contreras). A career military officer and formerly Castro's right-hand man, Gomez was the last caudillo to rule over Venezuela.

Biography
Juan Vicente Gomez was born in Tachira, Venezuela in 1857, and he joined the private army of Cipriano Castro in 1899 and helped him seize control of the country. In 1902, he became head of the military, suppressing major revolts against Castro's government. In 1908, while Castro was seeking medical attention in Europe, Gomez seized control in Venezuela. He won US and European support and economic stability by granting concessions to foreign oil companies, launching an extensive public works program while privately accepting kickbacks to boost his personal fortune. In 1913, he nominally stepped down from power to let his puppet Jose Gil Fortoul lead the country, but he remained the final authority in the country, and he returned to direct power from 1922 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1935. While his fiscal conservatism helped the country through the Great Depression and established the bolivar as a hard currency, his reputation as a leader suffered due to his corruption and authoritarianism. Nicknamed "the Catfish" for his mustache and "the Tyrant of the Andes" for hailing from the mountainous Tachira province, he used his power to enrich himself and his friends, and he died in office in 1935.